Characters

Cinematographer

Editor

The
original "Paranormal Activity" was an ultra-cheap spook show that managed to attract huge audiences that were lured
in by its low-fi aesthetic, and the central gimmick of being presented as a
collection of home videos made by an ordinary couple hoping to capture evidence
of a supernatural entity. Of course, the problem with making a film
based around a gimmick is that it only really works that first time and if a
follow-up is in the cards, and the astronomical grosses made that all but
inevitable, the filmmakers would have to do one of two things—either offer viewers something new and different and risk
alienating them (as was the case with "Book of Shadows," the
reasonably ambitious, though deeply flawed continuation of "The Blair
Witch Project") or just give them the same thing with only minor
variations to the formula for as long as they are willing to pay to see them.

Advertisement

In a move
even less surprising than anything on display in the films themselves, the
people behind the "PA" films chose the second path, and over the next
few years, they essentially gave viewers the same ghostly claptrap over and
over with only a couple of minor tweaks to the formula that have so far
included a straightforward (sort-of) sequel, a retro-themed prequel set in the '80s, a version centering on hip teenagers with their smartphones and their
complicated pants and a spinoff aimed at Hispanic audiences. Now comes the latest installment, "Paranormal Activity:
The Ghost Dimension," and the sixth time is not the charm with this load
of hooey that tries to make up for its lack of legitimate scares or basic
narrative clarity by adding the alleged miracle of 3-D into the mix.

Our
potential victims this time around are the Fleeges—dad Ryan (Chris J. Murray), mom Emily (Brit Shaw), their
adorable moppet Leila (Ivy George)—who have just moved into a new
home so vast and expansive that the late Aaron Spelling might have deemed it to
be a little ostentatious, though the extra space does allow for the presence of
his doofus brother Mike (Dan Gill) and her New-Age sister Skyler (Olivia
Taylor Dudley). One day, Mike stumbles across a box containing a bunch of video
tapes and an ancient video camera approximately the size of a Buick. Naturally,
Ryan is ridiculously fascinated with the camera (so much so that he never seems
to have to go to work or anything), especially once he discovers that it has
been custom-built to allow people to see weird apparitions. Cue the usual array
of strange noises and things popping up in front of the camera as the demon
known as Toby takes up residence in the house, and tries to lure Leila to his
side as part of its diabolical plan to assume human form and take over the
world.

The whole
enterprise is, of course, irredeemably idiotic in every possible way. Even by
the standards of the genre, the characters here are moronic beyond belief—they have a number of cameras strewn around the house to
capture all of the nocturnal activities but evidently never bother to watch any
of the footage and seem oddly insistent on leaving Leila to sleep alone long
after it has been established that some supernatural deity is pursuing her. The
screenplay is so lazy in its construction that exposition is covered in rushed
bits of dialogue that come out of nowhere ("What if the witches are using
them in some sort of ritual to give Toby a human body?") and there are
actually several scenes that consist entirely of the characters watching
footage from the earlier entries in the series in a gambit that reminded me of
one of the more inspired jokes from "Spaceballs." The scare scenes
are the same as in all the previous films—long static scenes of empty
rooms that are eventually punctuated by something jumping in front of or
getting yanked away from the camera. As for the finale, it is so weak that even
those that have actually liked the series will be annoyed with the weak sauce conclusion on display, especially in the way that it utterly fails to deal with a
certain character who was of great importance in the other films but who is
almost completely overlooked here.

Advertisement

Then
there is what must be one of the sorriest deployments of the dubious miracle of
3-D that I can readily recall. Remember that camera that shows the weird
apparitions? Well, whenever we are supposedly seeing things from the
perspective of that contraption, the image goes into 3-D as ectoplasmic entrails
and other random items are hurled before the camera. First of all, the format
is never used here as anything other than a tired gimmick that adds nothing to
the story but three extra bucks to the ticket price. A bigger problem is that
the presentation is scary only on aesthetic grounds—between the natural murkiness inherent with the process,
the attempt to recreate the sometimes smeary look of early-90s VHS technology, and the fact that all of these sequences take place at night with minimum
lighting at best, there are long stretches of time when the onscreen results
are almost literally unwatchable.

There is
actually a second gimmick at play in "Paranormal Activity: The Ghost
Dimension" in addition to the 3-D that will be familiar to most seasoned
genre buffs. Perhaps sensing a waning in the appeal of the series over the last
couple of installments, the producers are insisting that this is going to be
the absolute, honest-to-goodness finale to the series and that wild horses
could not convince them to do another one in the future. Considering the lack
of any real resolution, especially in regards to that one character I hinted at
earlier, my guess is that if this does well enough at the box office, that
promise will fall away as quickly as it did when the producers of the
"Friday the 13th" and "Nightmare on Elm St." franchises
made similar claims back in the day. If a new one does come along in due time,
the producers will need a new addition to the formula in order to differentiate
it from its predecessors. I say make the next one a musical—that alone should make it scarier than the other films in
total.

Subscribe to our mailing list

Enter Your Email Address

Advertisement

The Ebert Club is our hand-picked selection of content for Ebert fans. You will receive a weekly newsletter full of movie-related tidbits, articles, trailers, even the occasional streamable movie. Club members also get access to our members-only section on RogerEbert.com